FlickDramatizer Review

We have an expression here in the UK based on our notoriously bad public transport system…

“You wait ages at a bus stop for a bus to come along and then two arrive at the same time.”

You could apply that to video special effects software.

Last week, I recommended the excellent ‘Viddyoze’ software that was re-released with special one-time pricing.

It allows you to add pre-produced ‘Hollywood-style’ special effects to your videos with just a few clicks of the mouse.

I won’t repeat at length all of the reasons why this is a good idea, because I covered them in detail in my previous emails.

The bottom line is that video is the go-too medium for marketing and communication these days.

However, just creating videos isn’t really enough any more.

In an increasingly crowded marketplace, your videos need to stand out from the crowd to both get noticed and then get watched.

Viddyoze helps do that because it gives you access to the type of effects that have previously only been available to professional video producers or people who can both afford and understand software like Adobe After Effects.

Viddyoze is a very impressive piece of kit and I know a lot of you took advantage of the special re-launch deal.

I certainly did.

Well, today, the second ‘bus’ has come along.

This is a new piece of software from the people behind ‘Explaindio’ and it’s called ‘FlickDramatizer’.

Just like Viddyoze, FlickDramatizer comes with a library of professionally-produced special effects templates that you can add to your videos.

And FlickDamatizer is just as easy to use.

You upload a video, choose the effect or effects you want, render the new video and export it.

On a simplistic level, even if you have invested in Viddyoze, FlickDramatizer is an attractive option for extending the range of video effects at your disposal.

However, there are some key differences between the two pieces of software.

First – and I think, most importantly – FlickDramatizer allows you to work with static images as well as video.

Hence, you can load up any image, apply any of the effects templates and export the result as a video file.

For example, you could take an image of a person and apply a ‘rain’ effect so that it looks like the person is standing in the rain.

Or you could have the image move around, so it looks like the person is ‘dancing’.

(There are no fewer than 270 effects, which I’ll come back to later.)

Why might this be useful?

Let’s take Facebook as an example.

If you do any marketing on Facebook, you already know that you have to grab attention on an increasingly crowded timeline in order to get results.

And moving images grab more attention than static ones.

That’s a simple and undeniable fact.

Our eyes are instinctively drawn to movement.

And moving images means video.

When you put a video on Facebook, it will autoplay, drawing attention to itself.

But that’s not the only reason you should be using video on Facebook.

Facebook is having a bit of a turf war with YouTube over who is going to dominate online video.

And that means Facebook is offering wider reach and much cheaper advertising rates for video than for text or static images.

However, there is a problem…

Most people do not have the time, skill set or tools to create videos, especially high-quality ones that are going to engage viewers.

After all, getting attention is one thing. Then you have to keep it.

And that is where FlickDramatizer can be a huge enabler.

You don’t have to spend ages putting a video together from scratch.

Instead, you can take any image and turn it into a very captivating video in moments.

As a crude example, which do you think is going to get more attention and engagement?

A static image of a happy person…

Or a moving image of the same happy person ‘dancing’ in a snowstorm?

The answer should be obvious.

Now, some of you may be saying “What about GIFs? They allow you to animate a static image and there are tools out there that allow you to create them.”

True.

However, these produce low-quality results and the ‘animation’ you can achieve with them is very limited.

Besides, you can’t currently use GIF files on Facebook as-is.

And, even if you could, they would not attract the love that Facebook has for video in terms of virality and lower ad costs.

But it’s not just Facebook.

Video is also the most effective choice for most other social media platforms, including YouTube and Instagram.

If you do any social media marketing at all, or are planning to do so, I believe this image to video feature alone justifies an investment in FlickDramatizer.

I do an awful lot of Facebook advertising and I will certainly be using it extensively in my business.

You can also use this feature for other purposes.

For example, if you have a logo for your business, you can animate it for use in your videos.

Applying an effect is as simple as loading a video or an image into the software, selecting the template you want and then exporting the new ‘dramatized’ video.

You can use the software in two different ‘modes’: ‘Wizard’ and ‘Advanced’.

The only difference is that Advanced mode gives you more customization options for the effects.

For example, you can add a transparent foreground, change the positioning, orientation and size of the video inside the ‘canvas’, add blur effects and more.

From my testing, Wizard mode is likely to be more than adequate for most users.

It is quick and simple but still gives you a lot of control over the effects you create.

Here are some examples of the type of effects you can create…

One very important difference between FlickDramatizer and Viddyoze is that there is no ‘timeline’ in the former.

This means that the effects you add are applied to the whole of the video you are working on.

You can’t have one effect for the first 10 seconds, then a break of 5 seconds and then another for the next 10 seconds and so on.

So, if you are working with a lengthy video project, you would be using FlickDramatizer to produce video snippets for adding into your main video using other video editing software.

And FlickDramatizer is pretty much exclusively about special effects.

Unlike Viddyoze, you can’t use it to create elements like lower thirds, annotations, call outs and calls to action.

So, for me, Flick Dramatizer is best used as a means to create videos from images or to add special effects to very short videos to grab attention on Facebook and other social media.

Given its huge library of effects and ease of use, it is very effective at doing this.

Viddyoze is better suited to quickly adding multiple professional touches to, for example, a sales video.

During the launch, you can pick up lifetime access to FlickDramatizer for a one-time price of $37.

I am told that, after the launch, charging will probably move to an annual subscription model.

The price will also be rising in stages during the launch, so it is best to jump in as soon as possible if you are interested.

OK. What about the inevitable upsells?

There are four.

The first upsell is the ‘Overlay Club’.

The basic software allows you to add transparent video overlays.

In simple terms, these are videos that will play ‘over’ your target video.

For example, you may have an overlay for a snowstorm.

This has a transparent background which allows your target video to show behind the falling snow flakes, making it appear like it is snowing in your target video.

The basic version allows you to upload and use your own video overlays, but does not come with any installed.

Joining the Overlay Club gives you 100 of these overlays every month.

Pricing is $39 a month, but there are also other payment options.

With 270 effects in the basic version, you probably only need to consider this if you are into video production in a very big way, perhaps as a service to other people.

Speaking of which…

The second upsell is the commercial license for a one-time fee of $97.

With the basic version, you can only create videos for your personal use.

The commercial license allows you to create videos for other people as a service.

There is certainly a healthy demand for the types of effects you can easily create using FlickDramatizer.

For example, a quick browse of outsourcing sites such as Fiver.com and Outwork.com turns up lots of jobs offering to animate business logos, something you can achieve in a few minutes using this software.

The third and fourth upsells are for a different product called ‘Graph Player’ that I have not had a chance to review, but they do not add to the core software.

I really like FlickDramatizer, so I am adding in some bonuses…

If, as I suggest, you use the software for social media marketing, you will want some images you can turn into videos.

I am therefore giving you 185 high-definition images that have been carefully selected to work well in ads.

They cover multiple niches and themes, including landscapes, people, animals, emotions, office environments, business and too many others to mention here.

FlickDramatizer allows you to add music to your videos.

So I am also giving you 101 music loops, across a range of genres and ‘moods’.

Whatever your video project is about, there is sure to be something suitable in this collection.

Finally, I am including 25 professionally-produced dynamic video backgrounds that you can use in any of your video projects.

You will find download instructions for all of these bonuses inside the JVZoo customer portal after you make your purchase.

In addition, the product vendor has provided the following additional bonuses…

Compositor 2.0 – video compositing software

Screen Marker – software that allows you to draw on top of most applications on your desktop. Very useful for presentations and remote working.

SC Video Editor – all of the basic video editing features plus a range of professionally created scene transitions.

Panorama Photo Stitcher – ‘stitch’ multiple images together to create a new image.

You will find all of these bonuses inside the FlickDramatizer member’s area.

So what’s the bottom line?

Well, marketing is all about getting attention and then converting that attention into action.

You can have the best product in the world but, if you can’t get people to see it and then hang around long enough to hear about it, you will not make sales.

FlickDramatizer certainly helps you get attention by making your videos (and images) stand out from the crowd.

In particular, its image to video feature provides an excellent way for anyone to tap into the power and lower ad costs of video without having to spend a lot of time and effort (and maybe money) putting videos together from scratch.

If you market on Facebook or other social media – or if you simply want to add some very cool effects to your videos – it is definitely worthy of your consideration.